1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicular drive controlling apparatus and method which are capable of driving a whole or part of road wheels of the vehicle using electric motors.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. 2000-318473 published on Nov. 21, 2000 exemplifies a previously proposed vehicular drive controlling apparatus which drives a part of a plurality of road wheels with electric motors. In the previously proposed drive controlling apparatus, front left and right road wheels are driven by means of an engine and each of rear left and right road wheels is drive by a corresponding individual motor. Two motors driving the rear left and right road wheels respectively are disposed on a center portion of a vehicular width direction at a vehicular rear side, each motor being coupled to a corresponding road wheel via a corresponding speed-reduction unit. A power for the two motors is supplied from a (second) generator which is a power supply and an electronic control circuit controls a field current of each of the motors so as to govern an electromotive force and, furthermore, a generated driving force at each road wheel connected to the corresponding one of the two motors. Then, in the previously proposed vehicular drive controlling apparatus, the power supply as the second generator and two motors are electrically connected in parallel to each other.